1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to methods and arrangements for electronic accounting of services, particularly by payments, with chip cards using open data networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cards with an embedded processor or memory, known as chip cards or smart cards, are employed for the payment of services. A number of different card types are known, these referred to being known as "credit cards", "debit cards", pre-paid money cards or as money cards with a refillable electronic purse.
There are currently money card solutions in many countries that are nationally developed and specific to each country; for example, "Avant" in Finland, "Danmont" in Denmark, the EC card with a chip in Germany, and "Quick" in Austria. These solutions are incompatible with one another in terms of technology and method of use.
Credit card organizations are currently testing solutions that are to be internationally employed, for example "Visacash" of Visa, "Mondex" of Mastercard, "Clip" of Europay, "Proton" of American Express. These solutions are likewise incompatible with one another. Even though this group of vendors has specified a common standard, which is currently known by the working title "EMV", cards that have already been issued and solutions that are already in the marketplace are not compatible with the new standard.
It has been shown that some of these cards definitely use largely the same hardware devices; they differ, however, on the basis of different software programs and protocols and specific security modules in the terminal for accepting the chip card. Accordingly, solutions have become known wherein a chip card terminal that the chip card uses during a payment procedure is equipped with a number of different software modules and to which several security modules are connected. Since it is expensive and inflexible, however, this solution is not suitable for broad area employment.